Motherboard Sound?

[TunaSoda]

Hey, just wondering what everyone's take on on-board audio was?

If a decent PCI sound card is much better than on-board sound due to not using the CPU ect., why do most of the top boards even have on-board sound? (or serial/printer ports for that matter!)

Or at least have a dedicated SPU or something?

 

[mpjesse]

The intergrated audio in the nVidia Nforce 4 boards is awesome. I have been using on board audio for years now. I used to buy Creative stuff, but their prices are so damned unreasonable for even an entry level card.

IMO, most on board audio is good.

-mpjesse

 

[TunaSoda]

The intergrated audio in the nVidia Nforce 4 boards is awesome. I have been using on board audio for years now. I used to buy Creative stuff, but their prices are so damned unreasonable for even an entry level card.

IMO, most on board audio is good.

-mpjesse

I have an ASUS P5AD2-E with onboard 7.1 audio that will never be used because I use a Creative X-FI PCI card I use instead

I have gained a few frames by using it

Just seems like a waist LOL

 

[sturm]

Onboard audio is nothing like it was years ago. I only use onboard and compared to my sound blaster live on my older computer I cant tell the difference.
As far as onboard sound using the cpu, you wont notice anything other than on benchmarks.
The only way to tell whether onboard is good enough for you is to use it for awhile. If you dont like it then get a sound card.
Now if you only using a crappy set of desktop 2 channel speakers with only a tweeter in it then your wasting your money getting a highend card.

 

[sturm]

Did you ever use the onlboard?
Was just wondering if you noticed any improvement by going to the x-fi and if it was worth the money to get that extra frame or two?

 

[mdd1963]

Some of the top end boards are using SB Live and even Audigy 2S solutions for onboard sound....a win/win situation!

 

[TunaSoda]

Did you ever use the onlboard?
Was just wondering if you noticed any improvement by going to the x-fi and if it was worth the money to get that extra frame or two?

I used the onboard for a few weeks then got an X-FI and loved it!
Then I got a set of 7.1's and the sound is great, I havn't reverted back to the onboard yet to test it but I may... EDIT: My onboard is also 7.1

No matter how good onboard sound is, it's still "onboard" why not skip it and leave it to the consumer like they do with video?

 

[apache_lives]

I sure can tell the diffrence between onboard and even an old SoundBlaster128 - if you have a cheap "sub" in a 2.1 system onboard will distort it (UT2004 nvidia logo - good example) where as the SB128 and Audigy (and anything better, xfi etc) will have MORE bass AND clarity and wont distort.

Onboard sucks.

 

[utaka95]

The boards all come w/ onboard sound (and serial ports, etc.) these days because the marketing gurus at motherboard companies think tons of features sell boards - not brand name or reliable performance. And heck, they maybe right - alot of boards are sold to noobs everyday, and the feature list probably does alot to move boards to those type customers.

 

[TunaSoda]

This is very true, I guess I would like to see more non-noob friendly boards

ASUS should have a custom boards page, kind of like a system configurator just for MB features!

 

[hashv2f16]

With the onboard sound on my laptop (with external stereo speakers) you play an audio MP3 with a 250kbps bit-rate and listen to the same song on CD and of course I can't really tell the difference in quality between the two. As far as I'm aware, the quality of a 192kbps MP3 file is almost as good as that of a CD, when in fact CD audio is about 5x higher quality than that.

I played the same MP3s on a very new computer I built with onboard sound, and there was a hugely noticable difference in the vast range between treble and bass. The quality was fantastic in comparison to my crappy notebook onboard sound.

However the day I plugged that same computer into a recently installed professional sound system down at the church you could really tell it was only an MP3 that you were playing.

It all depends on your speaker setup. Or maybe it was just the cheap cabling... 8O